


Another Second Chance

by MelodyLee



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Best to only read if you're up to date on the manga, First story on ao3, Go Easy On Me, Gray Fullbuster - Freeform, Spoilers, Ultear Milkovich - Freeform, Wow I'm so nervous right now am I doing this right?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-26
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-27 17:22:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/981603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodyLee/pseuds/MelodyLee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You saved me,” Gray told her, and she looked surprised. He elaborated. “I knew it was you who saved me, with your time magic. I had a vision of my own death and I was able to avoid it.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Second Chance

The wind along the canal had picked up. It grabbed Gray’s white coat in its teeth, threatening to take it off before he unconsciously could.

_She has to be around here somewhere_ , he thought. _She can’t have gone far_. He turned another corner between two buildings to see a bar up ahead.

_Well, I might as well give it a shot._

He walked towards it with purpose, desperate to find the old woman and trying every source he could, though he wasn’t so sure that the people in the bar would know where she was.

He entered the shoddy-looking place, nostrils instantly hit with the smell of smoke and stale beer. Blues music played through wall speakers, just about heard over the gruff voices of the mostly male customers. He walked to the bar, which had probably given many a splinter, feeling eyes set upon him.

“What can I do for you?” The barmaid asked as he took a seat. She was a skinny thing in a black tank top and jeans, pink hair held up by a clip.

“I wonder if you’ve heard about a new woman in town? An elderly one?” The barmaid’s dark eyes caught his. “She’d be alone.” Gray added, feeling uncomfortable under the woman’s gaze.

The corners of her lips rose, just a bit. “Buy a drink and I’ll tell you what I know.”

Gray hesitated. He hadn’t planned on stopping. He was on a mission, and he intended to get it done as soon as he could, but the barmaid’s expression told him she wouldn’t take no for an answer. She placed a mug of beer in front of him. He sighed and handed over some money.

She smiled, casting a vaguely smug look upon her face. “Okay, I think you’re talking about that crazy elderly woman I had a disagreement with.”

“A disagreement?”

“She was crazy. She claimed she was a mage and she said she needed a place to stay. Well, by the looks of it she was looking for a place to die. I asked her where she came from and why she was alone, but she wouldn’t answer me. Around here you have to be careful with people you don’t know, even if they seem innocent enough.”

Gray took a sip of his drink and was pleasantly surprised. He was pretty sure this was the same stuff that usually Cana would challenge him to a drinking competition with. She always won.

“Then my boss arrived and turned her away, rambled on about dark mages and how we can’t trust magic folk.”

“Do you know where she went after that?” He asked her.

She hummed, wrapping a stray lock of hair around her finger. “I think, if I was her and I had nowhere to go and hardly any money, I’d look for an abandoned house. There just so happens to be a row of abandoned houses only 3 streets away.”

“Hey, Marina!” A deep voice shouted from across the bar.

“Just a second!” She responded, false cheer in her voice.

“Who’s the man?!” Another guy yelled.

A large man, the source of the voice, stood.

“I’m just giving him his change!” She turned back to Gray and handed him some coins. In his palm, he felt some paper. He looked up at Marina, but her expression said not to look yet. “Sorry, you have to leave now.”

Gray responded with a short nod and got to his feet. Again, walking out, he felt eyes upon him.

Once outside the bar, he had a chance to look at the paper in his hand. It was a note from Marina: _Help me. Boss/father taken captive by thugs in bar. Threatening death if I attack or attempt to free him._

Gray crumpled the note in his hand in anger and stormed back into the bar. Marina was held up against the wall by the big guy from earlier. Gray ran up to him and punched him hard around the side of the head. He snarled and let go of Marina, aiming a hit at Gray who ducked and jumped back.

“ _Ice Make: Cannon!_ ” He yelled and felt the cannon manifest in his hands. He shot over and over at the stunned group of thugs, irritated when two jumped out of the way. Gray moved in front of Marina.

“ _Ice Make: Lance!_ ” Another thug on the floor. He turned the attack to the last one, but had no time to attack as he jumped at him.

“ _Ice Make: Sword_!” The last thug was cut down.

After some of the fights that Gray had been involved in and his increased moulding speed, this was pitifully easy.

“Oh, thank gods, I knew it was you!” Marina hugged him tight, relieved. “You’re Gray Fullbuster from Fairy Tail, aren’t you? I saw you on Lacrima Vision at the Grand Games!”

“Uh, yeah,” Gray was taken aback. “Where’s your father?”

“They tied him in back,” She led him to the back door. “He won’t believe this, even if he doesn’t like mages!”

*

Marina’s directions were rough at best, but Gray found his way eventually.

The houses were very obviously completely abandoned and Gray suddenly wasn’t so sure that Ultear would be here: this was no place an ordinary old woman could live.

But Ultear wasn’t ordinary.

He froze the lock on the first house until he heard the satisfying shatter and kicked open the door. It opened up into a fair-sized living area and in the middle of the room was a bag, contents scattered across the dusty floor. Among the clutter was a sketch.

Gray crouched and picked it up. Meredy’s smile was bright and Jellal next to her also wore a half-smile. Ultear was between the two, her grin in place and her eyes bright. Gray’s chest tightened when he saw the sketches that had been beneath the one he had just picked up. One was of himself and Lyon, pulled into a hug by Ur, and the other was Ultear in Ur’s arms. In a corner Ultear had written the words ‘Forgive me, mother’.

Gray clenched his eyes shut and put the drawings back, then suddenly stiffened as a clatter came from the next room. He rose and charged in to the next room – a kitchen.

An old woman was bundled up in blankets next to the stove, which seemed to have something aflame inside. The dark-haired mage’s eyes widened and he crouched to rouse the sleeping crone.

“Ultear,” he murmured, as he gently pushed her arm. He breathed a sigh of relief as her eyes fluttered open.

“Gray.”

Her voice was rough and deepened, but she seemed somewhat pleased to see him. He let out a short laugh, glad to see that he wasn’t too late.

“What are you doing here?” she implored.

“I’ve got something for you,” he replied triumphantly, and went to put his hand in his coat pocket… to find he wasn’t wearing it. “Damn!” he cursed, and got up to retrieve it from the previous room. Seriously, when did he take that off?

Once clothed again, he took out the bottle of the purple substance. “It’ll age you back down again,” he explained. “But you won’t be nearly as powerful as you were before.”

Tears came to Ultear’s eyes and she began to sob. Gray was taken aback, wondering what he did wrong.

“Thank you,” she sobbed. “I don’t deserve all these second chances at life.”

“You saved me,” Gray told her, and she looked surprised. He elaborated. “I knew it was you who saved me, with your time magic. I had a vision of my own death and I was able to avoid it.”

Suddenly the woman sobbed harder and hugged her bundles of blanket close to her chest. Gray shuffled awkwardly on his feet, unsure of how to comfort her. He sat on the floor next to her and gave the bottle to her. She took it and smiled gratefully at him before drinking it.

The effects were almost instantaneous. Her skin tightened and her white hair regained its previous purple. Her eyes regained their shine and her lips their fullness. Colour returned to her and Gray’s heart jumped with joy. The smile returned to her face. Before he knew what was happening he was pulled into a tight embrace.

“I don’t think I can ever thank you enough, Gray Fullbuster,” she whispered.

Gray smiled. “I’m glad you’re grateful,” he told her. “I had to defeat one of Zeref’s demons for this.”

He stood and offered his hand to help the young woman up. She accepted it and stood. Gray went to the living room and put her stuff in her bag.

“Come on, then,” he prompted, heaving the bag onto his back, marvelling at how Ultear had carried this in her old-woman state – the bag was damn heavy.

“Where?”

Gray grinned at her. Though she had lost a lot of power she had much of it to begin with. With training, she could build it back up. “To Fairy Tail.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, seriously this is based on what I want to happen because Gray recognized Ultear in old woman state and it kills me. HE KNEW IT WAS HER!! :'( 
> 
> Also, I'm trying to get back into the writing game. I had a few knocks to my confidence levels and I'm trying to regain it, so I apologise for any mistakes.


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